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Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Who knew that going on honeymoon,
doing write ups for the peerless Clash of Swords event and changing jobs (and
the subsequent requirement to actually do work (at least initially)) would adversely
affect the flow of blog posts?

Yeah, it surprised me too.

What also shocked me is that
going out so late in Cardiff the night before Clash (losing my wallet and all
my money in the process) that I got about an hour’s sleep before round 1 did
not impact me too much when it came to taking photos of my games (it did,
however, have a very significant impact on my ability to play (or, come to
think of it, walk, talk, stand and generally live)). Returning the digital
picture taking device (I think they call them mobile phones) to my old company
when I left (whilst forgetting to send them to myself as planned) does,
however, rather impact my ability to use said photos. There must be something
about Cardiff that has this effect on me. Maybe it’s the accents.

So.

I just wanted to drop quick note
to apologise for the dearth (good word that) of posts and let you know the plan
going forward.

This whole “working” thing will
make it harder to write the ramblings posts I sometimes find myself posting,
but short, sharp, insightful posts lacking in tangential deliberations should
be fine. Alas I am writing these, and as such can’t promise any insightfulness,
and I definitely wouldn’t count on sharpness, but I will try to keep them
short.

In the pipeline for the next
couple of weeks (in no particular order):

·Rundown of my experiences
at Clash of Swords (at least the ones I remember)

·End of Times: Nagash fluff
review

·Race to the Masters - a
look at the players competing to qualify for this year’s showpiece event

·End of Times: Nagash list
thoughts

·End of Times: Nagash
implications to the broader game

·Easyhammer – an article I
have been working on about the Elven menace we are currently living through

·Upcoming events I am going
to this year (Tribute, London’s Calling, Blood & Glory and Bjorn) and the
lists (and reasons why) I intend to use

·Random spouting of things
as they occur to me.

I also have some other projects
in the pipeline that will reveal as and when they come to fruition – just as
well I have so much spare time!Sorry about the delays, I feel almost as bad as this kitten

﻿

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Random musings of the day

I was listening to the excellent
Heelanhammer this lunchtime as they did their coverage of their (and
gravel-voice Hoen’s) experiences of Clash, and a couple of random things
occurred to me.

Firstly, I would like to
apologise once again to Wayne for the whole
forgetting-to-maybe-kill-the-terrorgheist situation. I felt terrible about
that, and I know he was gutted. My defence, for what it is worth (which is not
much, in all honesty), is a combination of the state I was in (I was pleasantly
shocked I could remember how to breathe, never mind play ‘hammer (yes, I blame
the city of Cardiff, or, at the very least Hard6’s very own Jay Hopkinson), and
the fact that after the Ghoul King was killed so swiftly for the third game in
a row (spoiler alert) I was immediately focused on the potential 20-0 loss-enabling
crumbles that were about to crash down around me. As such I didn’t even give
the King’s goose a second thought until later in the game.

When Wayne pointed out the
mistake on Sunday morning I, as previously noted, felt terrible, and offered to
change the score as he saw fit. He kindly, and correctly, declined. The issue
here is that this happened in the very first turn of the game.

The reason I bring this up, other
than for a good ol’ bit of public internet flagellation, is because it made me
think about the usual cries of despair you often hear post game/event. “If only
I had rolled an [insert number here] I would have won/finished [insert appropriate
placing]. Apart from in very rare situations, this is an impossible rabbit hole
to travel down.

Take our game as an example. Does
he wound the terrorgheist (can’t remember the strength of the cannon)? Do I
make my regen save? How many wounds does it do? How many wounds are now caused
by the crumble (given this will happen after), especially as was within BSB
range? Given how things turned out, if applied retroactively, there is a good
chance that the goose dies – cue 600 odd points to him. But it’s not that
simple of course. There is as much chance that I pass the regen as there was of
his Abomination getting up again (which it did (which then allowed the Abom to
reposition itself to completely halt my forward push on his lines, and furthermore
allowed the rat swarms that followed to eat 100 odd points of necromancer
(neutering my magic in the process)). Assuming one would fail is as dangerous
as assuming Aboms never get back up (and we all know they always do).

Even assuming the goose goes
down, given the early nature of the game, there is every chance I go hell for
leather for his jugular (as opposed to the pseudo defensive game I played in
the end). What happens then? Sure, I probably lose, but who knows?

So, a somewhat disjointed point,
but it is worth noting that “what ifs?”, whilst therapeutic, is often pointless
when reflected upon the cold light of day.

All that said… Sorry Wayne!

The other point (‘interesting’
is, after all, a matter of perspective) made on this particular episode was
Dan’s unhappiness (if not too strong a word) at winning all five games and yet
finishing behind two other VC players who did not. A complaint I have uttered
myself on occasion, and an understandable one (unlike most of my other complaints
to be fair).

This got me thinking – what is a
win? Stupid question of course. The rulebook tells us 100 points. The issue is
that this is pretty unpopular with a lot of people who fear the “victory snipe”
(to coin a phrase). The (from what I have seen) happy medium seems to be 300
points to get a win. This has more of a taste of a “real” victory.

The 20-0 system, much beloved the
world over, is great for many things (well, namely for registering degrees of
victory). The issue of course is that in a good matchup (be it player or army)
you can rack up the easy 20-0s, whilst your rivals are less fortunate. And this
is a very real issue. I have for a long time believed that if you want to
finish in the top 10 of an event and win your first few games, the sensible
thing to do is lose game 4. Drop down tables, and hopefully smash people on the
way up (sounds simple… and it sort of is).

That to one side it begs the
question: What is a victory (subtly different to a “win”)? I, for example, do
not consider a 11-9 (or even a 12-8 really ) a *win* (or, conversely, 9
points a loss). When you get into the 13 bracket things then yes, that feels
right. 450 points is a combat unit, roughly 20% of your army.

What the “perfect” scoring system
is an interesting debate in itself – I think I like a mix of Win/Loss/Draw with
some scenario elements (though capturing terrain with banners gets a bit old).
I can see the attraction of something along the lines of Win/Loss/Draw incorporating
a Strength of Schedule component. Not sure how this would be done, but think it
is probably the “fairest”.

Though maybe not – guess that
depends on your definition of “fair”.

As I wrote the above I realised the
biggest, most obvious, benefit of the 20-0. It is the only current system that rewards
you for minimising loses – some of the greatest games of Warhammer are when
something goes so badly wrong you know you are going to lose, but you manage to
turn a 0-20 into a 7-13 (or whatever). W/L/D doesn’t offer this.

What is true (as much as it is
the least helpful point in the world, and runs counter to a decent debate), is
what I am always admonished when I complain about victory conditions – “you
have to play the system you’re in”. If the system rewards 20-0 wins, make sure
you can make those happen (well, 16s at least). Logically of course, this means
everyone should be bringing smash lists.

Thankfully in reality there are
plenty of people like me that will just take whatever they want to take, and in
all probability won’t even know what the scoring system is.

About Me

Who am I? Well, that’s deep!
In short, a half Brazilian, half British Warhammer tournament player with an opinion on pretty much everything!
Welcome to RaffazzaTime – a blog predominantly focused on my take on my hobby and the Warhammer tournament scene in the UK.
I have been in and around the hobby since 1994 – with a big break in the early 2000s. Have actively played Warhammer, 40k, Bloodbowl, Necromunda, Mordheim, Epic, Battlefleet Gothic and even some GorkaMorka at various times. Been active in the UK WFB tournament scene since the release of 8th edition.
This blog will be my ramblings on the game, tournaments, lists, and maybe even some introspective soul-searching ;)

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